Periscope: Two states, two stories

Elections to the legislative Assembly of Punjab and Goa are due on Saturday. Punjab has a 117-member Assembly, while Goa has 40 MLAs. 

The election in Punjab, which used to be between two traditional alliances, one led by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP) and the other by the Congress, will see a new political actor, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Whose votes will AAP take away? Will socioeconomic factors like education and health have a big role in making up people's minds? Or will it be the old allure of sops (SAD has promised to buy land abroad for farmers to help them earn a living).

In Goa, the issues are different. There is the issue of Goan identity and how much the state supports it. The BJP alliance has been split twice — once by a leader from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Subhash Velingkar, who has formed his own Goa Suraksha Manch to protect the identity of Konkani-speaking Goa and its education, and the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Parishad (MGP), which was in alliance with the BJP but has broken it. Goa will such a fracture for the first time.

Hearing on jallikattu 

All applications challenging Tamil Nadu's amendment of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, allowing the conduct of jallikattu, the bull taming sport, will be heard on Thursday by a Bench of judges Dipak Misra and Rohinton Nariman. The government application will also be heard, with those filed by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), Compassion Unlimited Plus Action, other animal rights organisations and activists against the law. Tamil Nadu lawyer GS Mani has challenged the applications made by AWBI and others. He has argued the state legislature had every authority to pass an amendment allowing jallikattu, keeping in view the public protests. The amendment is not a deliberate nullification of the 2014 Supreme Court (SC) judgment banning jallikattu but a decision taken by representatives of the people, taking into consideration the people’s wishes. The SC order will be important, as it will have a bearing on several contentious issues which are considered convention or ritual but have been outlawed. On Friday over a dozen men suffered injuries as jallikattu and manjuvirattu (a variation of the bull-taming sport) were held in Tiruchirappalli and Sivaganga districts of Tamil Nadu, respectively. In the game hundreds of bulls were used, police said. 

EC orders FIR against Arvind Kejriwal for bribe remarks

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Photo: PTI

The Election Commission (EC) on Friday ordered poll authorities in Goa to register an FIR against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his remarks about bribes made at a poll rally in the state. The poll body also termed as "scurrilous" the AAP leader's claim that the Commission is encouraging bribery by refraining him from uttering such statements.  EC said FIR/complaint be lodged against the AAP leader under provisions of the Representation of the People Act.